Accra, March 9, GNA - The National Communications Authority (NMC) says all is set for the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to take-off from 1st July, this year indicating that test run for personnel of mobile operators have begun.

MNP is a system that enables mobile phone users to retain their numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

"The MNP system is ready and we know its going to help the customer. We have the full cooperation from the operators and the total political support to run it," Mr Joshua Peprah, the NCA boss, said in a media interaction with members of the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) in Accra. Speaking on preparations so far, Mr Bob Palitz, the NCA consultant on the MNP, said "this is one of the major collaborative processes that the NCA has been involved in."

He said Ghana stands at an advantage because it did not have to reinvent the wheel because the NCA had taken cues from the experiences of other countries that had introduced the MNP system. The process of moving number is called porting. The original network under MNP system becomes the 93donor" of the number, while the new netwo= rk is the 93recipient" of the number.

Come July 1st, a Ghanaian mobile phone user wishing to change his network for various reasons can comfortably walk to another network to port his number within 24 hours as had been set by the NCA. This will enable him to retain his original number and to cease to be a subscriber of the donor network.

The MNP planning process started in earnest about one and half years ago, with the NCA forming a MNP Steering Committee Group, which included representatives of all the six mobile licenses.

Currently the NCA says it had procured the centralised equipment and service needed for the effective and smooth run of the system. Once a person's port is approved by the recipient, the central equipment system quickly sends a message to all networks in Ghana informing them that the person's phone number has been ported and that all call and test messages should be routed to the recipient network.

The Authority said the drafting of the contract between the NCA and the six mobile licenses had also been completed for signing and operators had begun to connect to the NCA central system.

The NCA said it would have a regulatory authority in place to ensure that the mobile companies operated the MNP system in the public interest. MNP is active in countries like Australia, Denmark and Sweden